ROYAL CITY - It was a tough opening week of basketball for the Royal High School boys last week as they fell three times in non-league action.

The Knights dropped contests to Quincy, 54-33, Cascade, 58-52, and Naches, 68-41. Once again the Knights started short on practices because of the long football season, and it showed.

"We had some highs and lows," coach Pete Christensen said. "With only seven practices by week's end, we definitely have things to work on. We have tried to cram so much into the little time we have had that the guys are struggling to straighten them out at game time."

The Knights will have three more non-league contests in the coming week. Tonight they will play Medical Lake at home. Friday they will travel to Highland, and Saturday they will go to Cle Elum.

One of the ups last week was the contest with Cascade. The score was tied 40-40 at the end of three periods. Christensen was pleased with the effort despite the loss.

A highlight of that contest was the double figure scoring of three different players. Teddy Mead scored 12 points, and Aaron Johnson and Jonathan Partida at 11 each. Mead led in rebounds with 10, Riley Lefler had seven and Partida five.

Mead was the scoring leader in the Quincy contest with 11 points. Lefler had nine. Mead had eight rebounds, Partida five and Lefler and Colin Christensen four each.

Johnson was the scoring leader in the game with Naches with 14 points. Lefler scored 11 and Mead six. Lefler had six rebounds, Peyten Stakkeland five and Mead four.

"There have been times in all of the games when things have gone quite well," Christensen said. "We will look to those things to build our confidence, but we will be looking at the challenges we had this past week to give us focus and direction for the coming weeks."